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Racism and Romanians: what Ukip candidates really believe
Racism is “just ethnic banter”, paedophiles should be killed by vigilantes and Londoners should wear face masks to protect themselves from eastern Europeans, some of the UK Independence Party’s local election candidates have suggested.
Ukip is facing questions over its vetting after campaigners criticised the “far-Right connections” and “cuckoo conspiracy theories” of some of its potential councillors. The party has been surging in polls ahead of local elections on May 2, with the latest survey suggesting it could win 100 seats.
Nigel Farage, its leader, admitted the party had not checked the backgrounds of all its 1,700 candidates.
Chris Scotton, who is standing in Leicester, has a Facebook page that endorses the far-Right English Defence League.
He has “liked” Facebook groups with names such as “No more mosques in Britain”, “Women deserve as much respect as men … LOL joke” and “Racism? No mate it’s just ethnic banter”.
David Waller, a candidate in Malling, Kent, referred to risk of tuberculosis after barriers to Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants are lifted next year. “I would suggest not going to London after January 2014 unless you absolutely have to and if you do, adopt the Japanese practice of wearing a face mask,” he wrote on his blog.
Mr Waller later told The Daily Telegraph he had not meant the remark to be serious and he is in no way xenophobic.
Ukip has been forced to withdraw some of its candidates amid rows over their views. It suspended Anna-Maria Crampton, a candidate in East Sussex, over alleged comments blaming Jewish people for the Holocaust, and Sue Bowen in Cornwall after it emerged she was a former member of the British National Party.
Peter Wilding, a founder of the pro-Europe British Influence campaign, said Mr Farage should not “get away with a smile while saying we haven’t done due diligence” and criticised the “cuckoo conspiracy theories” of some candidates.
A Ukip spokesman said tonight that Conservatives were trying to “traduce people supporting Ukip”.
“Ukip is made up of ordinary people many of whom are young and have made the odd excessive comment on new media,” he said. “I am perfectly prepared to answer every criticism that [Conservative] central office has laid at our door after they have told me how many Romanians and Bulgarians they expect to come to London in the next five years.”
Update: when this article was first posted it made reference to remarks that Ukip candidate Richard Wilkins was said to have made about Mick Philpott, who killed six of his children in a house fire. We were subsequently informed that these remarks were not made by by Mr Wilkins but by someone pretending to be him during a telephone call. We have therefore removed the remarks and apologise for Mr Wilkins for any distress caused by their publication.